Rather than further hijack another thread, I thought I should start a new one and ask about others’ experience of having a member or members on 2 or more teams. This Q & A makes it legal, but I’m wondering whether the net effect is potentially positive, or whether it’s something we simply endure because enforcement is impractical. I realize that different teams will have a variety of reasons for why they would choose to have members serving multiple teams, and offer my team as only one of (probably) many scenarios.
We have typically 8 – 10 students, which has remained fairly stable over the past 3 seasons. About 3-4 are regular, committed members, and the regulars are invariably veterans. The irregular attenders have not yet made robotics their priority, but I don’t want to dismiss them because almost all of our committed veterans were once irregular rookies who got “hooked” by the excitement of competing at a tournament. As a result, we have the numbers, but not the consistency or filling of important roles for 2 separated teams. So for us the options are: 1) one unified team or 2) 2 teams with shared/crossover members. (For some other teams, clearly separated teams at a single site would be another alternative, but this is not an option for us).
[INDENT]
Advantages of us as 2 teams (rather than 1) for us
[LIST=1]
*]By separating veteran/rookie teams, the rookies get a chance to test out their ideas. When they get help from the vets, it’s as their request, not because they’ve been pushed aside.
*]There is nothing like the experience of driving a robot on the field, and the rookies would probably not get the opportunity to drive or coach if we had only one team.
[/LIST]
Disadvantages of 2 teams for us
[LIST=1]
*]More cost
*]More chaos – both teams share a computer and sometimes download the wrong program between matches. Double the matches means more scurrying to get on the field in time.
[/LIST]
Advantages of us as 2 teams for everyone else
[LIST=1]
*]Our rookie bot tends to be very simple and to rank low – our opponents love this. Mid-level teams are comforted in knowing that they did better than someone else.
*]More revenue for tournament organizers. More teams for better seeding (especially the year there were 24 registered teams, including our 2 bots).
*]A wider of variety of robots playing on the field means more designs to see, even if some are very simple.
[/LIST]
Disadvantages of us as 2 teams for everyone else
[LIST=1]
*]Our rookie bot tends to be simple and rank low – our alliance partners don’t like this.
*]In a crowded tournament, an extra bot lengthens the day.
*]Having crossover members opens the door for other teams to have crossover members as well, with potentially different negative impacts.
[/LIST][/INDENT]
But really, with the ruling, the door is open for everyone, regardless of what we do.